engleski

A challenge of 21st century: Novel drug delivery systems with traditional remedies

Up to now, a new drug development has been divided into two parallel fields ; one which focused on newly discovered synthetic materials encapsulated in either novel drug delivery systems (NDDS) or traditional (conventional) drug dosage forms and the second one which focused on the traditional medicinal ingredients, mostly of plant origin, but with almost no interest in developing more sophisticated formulations or systems, which could improve the final effect of the remedy. Why is it so? Is not the 21st century time to combine all efforts for the improvement of therapy? Can we have NDDS with active ingredient of plant origin? The answer is very simple. Yes. The newest trend in drug development is providing just those liposomes with curcumin. Turmeric has been used in therapy for thousands of years, hundreds of papers are published on its beneficial therapeutic activities, but how do we deliver it to the cell? We know that our targets are receptors, cell organelles, specific sites. Why not use NDDS known to be able to target and to deliver entrapped material at desired sites to deliver active ingredient of plant origin. Our laboratory, together with several others in the world, started to focus on NDDS, especially liposomes, with active ingredients of plant origin. Our targets are liposomes with capsaicin for improved local action on the skin, liposomes with curcumin, and liposomes with other newly discovered constituents of Himalayan plants. To optimise therapy we can combine the knowledge on delivery systems, superior in many ways to the conventional treatment, with the knowledge on traditionally used ingredient of natural origin, up to now administered in rather primitive formulations. Based on our preliminary data, we are optimistic that those combinations will result in improved therapeutic outcome

plant; novel drug delivery system; liposomes

nije evidentirano